Another reception reading thread!

HiDs went into red level just before christmas - is this ok for this point of reception? He's a summer born and not particularly academic but I want him to achieve the best he can. He suddenly seems to be reading more fluently, I've really noticed his reading has come on over christmas.

Hopefully he will make it the next level by the end if reception then. His main obstacle is he doesn't like it - he says the stories are boring. Which of course they are because they're stage 2 so they aren't exactly riveting, I've told him to be able to read more exciting stuff he has to practice. We read to him a lot and he has great comprehension so hopefully it's just a matter if time.

red is doing well at this stage. Some schools won't even have given out any reading books yet and there will be plenty of children on wordless books. It sounds like he has learned the phonics they have been doing and is now managing to apply them to simple blending. Some children will get this very quickly, others will be months away from it yet. I think they hope for them to be red/yellow (level 2/3) at the end of reception but there will be some children struggling on red and others who will shoot off up the levels once they have been taught more phonics.

What sort of books do they send home out of curiosity? If he was able to sound out CVC words before starting then he will probably develop pretty quickly because he already had the basics early. Instant recognition of lots of words will make his reading much more fluent but this will be more obvious with some reading schemes (ORT) than others (phonics books).

he is lucky if he is in a class of 20. DD1 had 32 in her reception class.

The dandelion readers - apparently unit 7 equates to red book and which is where we are now.

Will have a look at Oxford Owl site, thank you. There are 22 in the class, there should have been more but the school had an abysmal ofsted and is now in special measures so quite a few parents moved their children elsewhere.

22 is quite a nice number - I suppose you can't blame parents for moving children but I always think Ofsted reports are a bit erm well...

I don't know Dandelion readers. The last one DD2 brought home was a rigby star guided book whatever that is (that was new to me too). I know Biff Chip and Kipper, songbirds phonics, Collins Big Cat, Read Write Inc, Usborne and lots of old schemes which our school seems to still have but not Dandelion or Rigby Star.

OP - my DS1 was on red band books this time last year and now he's reading 2-3 years ahead of his age. It just suddenly clicks, and it sounds as if your son is finding the same - not needing to sound words etc.

Have a look in your local library as well - ours has some called Espresso Phonics which are quite fun little stories, a bit more to them than Biff, Chip etc.

ItsOk - I help out in school with reading, and this time last year there were loads of kids who couldn't read in the reception classes. They all made huge strides before the summer, the first term is so exhausting for them I think many children don't absorb much of the phonics etc until the new year.

In a well run school ablity tables are really flexibly in key stage 1. A school in special measures is really under the spot light and the teachers are observed by someone from county/ SMT every two weeks. It is not nice having your child's school in special measures, but at least its reception rather than year 6.

It is hard not to worry and I find I worry about dd. Its easier to compensate for poor teaching in reception than year 6. Last year we had to pay for tutor to teach my son basic English so that he would cope at secondary.

It was the WORST ofsted report I've ever read, bar none.However we decided to give it a go as it will have to turn round fairly quickly. It's probably the best time to join the school and I've been happy so far.

Loads of staff have left and some more went at christmas. There are lots of new staff and a new head so fingers crossed it will now improve rapidly.

I will have a look at songbirds, I am glad that ds isn't having ort yet because I think dandelion readers are quite good even if ds thinks they are boring. They seem to be quite methodical. Will look at the Jelly and Bean books too, I've not heard of those.

far better to have phonics based books than the traditional ORT ones when they are learning the basics and the variety of stories I think is much better. It is nice to have a little continuity in some books using the same characters but my 2 have preferred the stories being stand alone really rather than always the same people. Bob Bug was their favourite, they would happily have had lots of books about him.

Even in a school with a good ofsted some of the teachers can be absolutely dreadful and it is luck of the draw if you get one of those or not.

ORT are good once the child gets to stage 4. My son really enjoyed the magic key stories.

I think that a variety of decodable books relieves the monotomy. Dd's school use danelion readers in the classroom and mostly send home Oxford Reading Tree Songbirds/ phonics books. The new Oxford Reading phonics tree books are really well designed. I am using some Ruth Miskin books as well.

Schools go up and down rapidly. A couple of years ago our primary school was good with outstanding features. A couple of key people left and the whole school collapsed academically.